Packed-in Pyrmont is Australia's most densely populated suburb

Senior writer

Dense living ... Pyrmont-Ultimo has the highest population density in Australia. Photo: James Alcock

It was once known for wharves, shipyards and stores. But the neighbourhood of Pyrmont-Ultimo has a new distinction: it is Australia's most densely populated suburb.

New figures from the Bureau of Statistics show Pyrmont-Ultimo had 13,850 residents a square kilometre in June 2012.

More than 15 million people – close to two-thirds of Australia's population – were residing in one of the capitals.

It was one of four suburbs that ring Sydney's CBD with population densities of more than 13,000 residents a square kilometre. The others were Potts Point-Woolloomooloo (13,600) , Darlinghurst (13,200) and Surry Hills (13,070).

Inner-city Melbourne had the next highest density, at 10,100 people a square kilometre. In Brisbane, the New Farm area had the highest population density, with 6000 people a square kilometre.

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But Australia's most densely populated suburbs aren't nearly as crowded as districts in some other world cities. Hong Kong's Kwun Tong district has a population density of more than 54, 000 people per square kilometre. The borough of Manhattan in New York City has a population density of over 25,000 people per square kilometre.

Eight of Australia's 10 most densely populated statistical areas are in Sydney. But population density falls rapidly with distance from the CBD.

At Bondi Beach, it was 8800 residents a square kilometre, and in Redfern-Chippendale it was 8400. Marrickville's population density was 4530 per square km while in the Ku-ring-gai area the average falls to less than 1400 a square kilometre.

In Camden, on the city's fringe, the figure was less than 500.

The bureau said the combined population of Australia's capital cities rose by 271,700 in the year to 2012. More than 15 million people – close to two-thirds of Australia's population – were residing in one of the capitals.

At the other end of the scale, there were over 200 statistical districts with population densities of less than one person per square kilometre, the bureau said. The majority were in Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales.